June 2018

When you open the Google Maps application on your Android or Apple device right now, you may be greeted with a "New! Swipe up to see what's nearby" notification that highlights the improved Explore functionality that Google implemented recently.

Google did introduce the feature last month actually but the worldwide rollout of them did not start until today.

If you have upgraded to yesterday's new Firefox 61 version you may have received a secure connection failed error when trying to connect to this very site and others.

The error message reads:

Thanatos is a ransomware variant that has been distributed using malware campaigns over the past few months.

Attack vectors include distribution through chat rooms on the Discord chat platform but also through other channels. Users need to execute specifically prepared files on Windows PCs to initiate the ransomware infection process.

Different versions of the malware were distributed with Thanatos 1.1 being the most recent version of the ransomware and the likelihood that newer versions will become available.

It took Microsoft a bit longer than expected but KB4284848, a new cumulative update for Windows 10 version 1803, has finally been released.

Microsoft released cumulative updates for previous versions of Windows last week but did not release an update for the April 2018 Update version.

It is usually the case that updates get released for all versions of Windows 10 and that is why it was strange that 1803 did not receive one when all other versions did.

Device Manager is a powerful administrative Windows tool to manage all connected devices. Microsoft uses the term devices for any hardware that is connected to the PC, from the motherboard and video card to external hard drives, the computer mouse, or monitors.

If you run Firefox Nightly right now, you may have noticed that the particular version of Firefox comes with a modified add bookmark prompt.

While the prompt itself has not changed, the key change is that Firefox displays a thumbnail of the actual page when you click on the add bookmark icon in the Firefox address bar.

If you have used Firefox before you know that you can add any site to the bookmarks of the browser by clicking on the star symbol in Firefox's address bar.

Mozilla revealed today that it plans to run a Shield Study in the United States to get data on a new feature that it calls Firefox Monitor.

Firefox Monitor is a security tool that gives Firefox users the option to check whether their accounts have been compromised.

Mozilla plans to release Firefox 61.0 to the Stable channel today. Since all Firefox releases are in sync, today is also the release data for Firefox 60.1 ESR, Firefox 52.9 ESR, and Firefox 62 Beta and Firefox 63 Nightly.

Firefox 61.0 introduces new features and improvements. Firefox users who use tab management extensions benefit from the new ability to hide the main tab bar in the version of the browser.

The new version makes it easier to add search providers to Firefox, and it includes quite a range of under the hood improvements next to that.

Twitter uses a quality filter for notifications and search results; it is designed to filter out low(er)-quality content so that users of the service can focus their attention on the remaining content.

While it can certainly be useful to filter out low quality content automatically, for instance, if it can be identified clearly as spam or automated content, other content may be filtered as part of the process.

Twitter users won't see that content even if it is relevant to them if they don't disable the quality filter on the site.

Google revealed the initial release of Google Podcasts recently, a new attempt by the company to establish a podcasting application for Android.

Google Podcasts is available on Google Play; unlike other apps by the company, it is available for all users right away so that you can give it a try right now and don't have to wait weeks or months before it becomes available.